“Father Conroy is a good man and I am grateful for his many years of service to the House,” the Wisconsin Republican said at the Weekly Standard’s Midwest Conservative Summit in Milwaukee. “This is not about politics or prayers. It was about pastoral services. And a number of our members felt like the pastoral services were not being adequately served or offered.”

Ryan said one of his responsibilities as speaker is to be “a guardian of the institution” and that sometimes involves making decisions that may not be politically popular. He said his decision to request Conroy’s resignation was made on behalf of the House and was something he had been contemplating for some time.

“It’s based on feedback I’ve been getting for quite a while from members,” the speaker said. “And again as a person who stands up for the institution I just wanted to make sure that we have pastoral services that are being adequately offered on a go forward basis for all of our members.”

Ryan spokeswoman AshLee Strong said they will have more to share on the bipartisan panel that will be recommending the next chaplain in the near future, noting they are awaiting Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's selections for the Democratic members of the panel.